Archive for ‘Carter’

That Walking Astro Grappler (#6882) just cracks me up every time I look at it. It captures that Classic LEGO Space aesthetic that toes the line between goofy and cool. It’s actually a cleverly designed set. The upright cockpit is unique and the swiveling walking mechanism is a lot of fun. I want to do more with the Walking Astro Grappler in the comic at some point, but decided it would be a fun cameo here.

I asked readers what they’d like to see in the 100th comic. Worker201 from classic-space.com responded almost immediately with an idea that was so perfect and like something I would do that it was like he had reached into my brain and pulled the idea out. I went with it and it became the longest comic I’ve ever done. Thanks for the great idea, worker201!

Here’s what worker201 wrote: “I’m thinking the 100 should be one of those “Remember that?” retrospectives that sitcoms used to feature. Galanos and Schwartz could be trapped somewhere and thinking they are about to die, so they see their lives flash before them. Like meeting Valkyrie at the theater, some memorable crashes, etc, all documented with photos from past comics. They could also have some fake remembrances, like “Remember that time we had to fight those dragons with the M-Tron guys? Dude, that wasn’t us. Oh yeah.” Of course it turns out they’re not dying, it’s just some twisted prank Schwartz has come up with.”

I need to revisit the idea that the main Space Agency characters get together once in awhile to play cards. I haven’t done enough with the idea that they’re all friends. And Red especially needs more attention.

There were no real Lego Space sets after the “Life on Mars” theme, which depicted astronauts working side-by-side with friendly Martians, began and ended in 2001. Sure, there were Star Wars sets to hold us over, but they belonged to another sci-fi universe, not the one Lego had developed since the 1970s. Finally, in 2007, “Mission to Mars” was released. This theme seemed a real return to the Lego Space of old. And if you weren’t sure of that, the astronauts sported the same emblem of the space agency that dominated the first 12 years of Lego Space. There was something odd going on, though. The doe-eyed Martians of the previous Mars theme were replaced with glow-in-the-dark, hostile aliens that looked a bit like, well, the monsters from the movie Aliens. Even stranger, it appeared that our beloved space agency was encroaching on the aliens’ homeworld and plundering its crystals while the angry aliens fought back, only to have the astronauts capture them, encase them in pods, and send them flying all over the planet in pneumatic tubes! It seemed a little too Starship Troopers. However, it has been pointed out that since the aliens are so different from the Martians seen before, it’s possible that the space agency had permission to mine the crystals and were suddenly attacked by the non-Martian Aliens, forcing the astronauts to defend themselves with their mining equipment and any weapons they happened to have on hand. I much prefer the second story, myself.

And here we have it, the first appearance of Commander Schwartz! For some reason, it’s a little weird to me that he didn’t appear in the first comic, but whatever. I don’t believe I had his personality planned out, although it went on naturally from this, and he did star in the initial outline for the “Meteor Madness” story that was the first thing I ever wrote for this comic.

This page still amuses me, and was the basis of the firstSpace Audiobook. And I really like how the background crisply contrasted with the characters.

The introduction of aliens actually caused a problem for me when, IN THE VERY NEXT COMIC, I introduced a story about the UFO aliens, which are meant to be mankind’s first widely-known alien encounter. I later explained that Earth had met the native Martians, but had grown a bit bored of them and now considers real aliens to come from outside the solar system (which I think would happen). I am going to return to the idea of these other aliens terrorizing the Mars astronauts in a future story, but not until after the UFO story plays out.